TrEes Walls Cities
Loré Lixenberg mezzo-soprano Brodsky Quartet The Brodsky Quartet with Loré Lixenberg, Ian Ritchie, the festival director, composers, and poets at the first performance of ‘Trees, Walls, Cities’, City of London Festival, 2013 premiere recording Trees, Walls, Cities Song Cycle for Mezzo-soprano and String Quartet
Nigel Osborne (b. 1948) 1 Prelude. Jerusalem to Derry – 2:19 = 78 – = 58 Christopher Norby (b. 1983) 2 ‘Once There Was an Island’ (Derry~Londonderry)* 5:51 Words by Matt Jennings (b. 1968) = 58 – = 58 with movement – = 58 – = 74 – = 68 – = 58 – = 52 – = 58 – = 66 – = 58 – = 54 – = 58 Nigel Osborne 3 Interlude. Derry to London – 1:04 = 58 – = Jocelyn Pook (b. 1960) 4 ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ (London)* 6:40 Words by Richard Thomas (b. 1987) = 78 – Più mosso = 88 – Tempo I = 78 – Più mosso = 88 – Slightly slower = 82 – Tempo I = 78 – Più mosso = 96 – Slower = 58 3 Nigel Osborne 5 Interlude. London to Utrecht – 0:58 [ ]
Theo Verbey (b. 1959) 6 ‘The Garden of Paracelsus’ (Utrecht)* 4:13 Words by Peter Huchel (1903 – 1981) Lento = 54 – = = 54 Nigel Osborne 7 Interlude. Utrecht to Berlin – 0:43 = 72 – = 88 – = 72 – = 88 Søren Nils Eichberg (b. 1973) 8 ‘Just outside’ (Berlin)* 3:22 Words by Søren Nils Eichberg Not fast = 88 – With great relief = 72 – Slightly forward = 88 – Tempo I = 88 Nigel Osborne 9 Interlude. Berlin to Vienna – 0:27 = 80
4 Gerald Resch (b. 1975) 10 ‘Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park’ (Vienna)* 3:00 Words by Ferdinand Schmatz (b. 1953) Dedicated to Loré Lixenberg and the Brodsky Quartet = 80 – = 66 – = 80 – = 120 – = 66 Nigel Osborne 11 Interlude. Vienna to Dubrovnik – 0:24 = 116 Isidora Žebeljan (b. 1967) 12 ‘When God was creating Dubrovnik’ (Dubrovnik)* 3:13 Words by Milan Milišić (1941 – 1991) = 116 – Più mosso = 96 – Ancora più mosso = 152 – A tempo = 144 – = 192 – = 88 – = 104 – Più mosso – = 208 Nigel Osborne 13 Interlude. Dubrovnik to Nicosia – 1:03 = 72 Yannis Kyriakides (b. 1969) 14 ‘Walls Have Ears’ (Nicosia)* 6:38 Words by Mehmet Yaşin (b. 1958) = 72 5 Nigel Osborne 15 Interlude. Nicosia to Jerusalem – 0:26 [ ]
Habib Shehadeh Hanna (b. 1974) 16 ‘Song of Songs’ (Jerusalem)* 4:33 Words by Solomon (tenth century BC) = 78 – Allegro – A tempo = 78 – = 130 – = 78 – = 140 Nigel Osborne 17 Postlude. Jerusalem to Derry 3:03 = 78 TT 48:26
Loré Lixenberg mezzo-soprano* Brodsky Quartet Daniel Rowland violin Ian Belton violin Paul Cassidy viola Jacqueline Thomas cello
6 Trees, Walls, Cities
Introduction to the re-planted birches of the Tiergarten. In the end, the trees have it. Every living city In 1529 the walls of Vienna (Celtic vedunia, spills beyond its walls and heads for the ‘forest stream’) turned the tide of European trees. The wall that was built to divide or repel political history when they withstood the is left standing as a monument or ruin. In assaults of Suleiman the Magnificent, but Derry~Londonderry the trees had it from the sounds of the janissary cymbals could the start. Its name in Irish – Doire – means be heard through the gates and changed the ‘Oak grove’. And the proud ‘maiden wall’, course of Western orchestral music. When never breached in its history, was overrun Mozart, the great maker of ‘Turkish’ music, by cascades of houses headed for the died in gentlemanly poverty, he was buried Foyle and across to Waterside to trees that beyond the walls, among the trees. know no religion. The orange brick shards of In the 1991 bombardment of Dubrovnik – London’s Roman Wall, built in Celtic lond – another city of the ‘oak grove’ (Old Slav the ‘wild place’ – to protect imperial invaders, duba / dubrava) – the walls were spared, now point outwards through a pulsating but its cypresses and pines were burnt metropolis of many cultures to bright lights to ash. In happier days, argosies plied the and lines of trees. waves from the Old Harbour eastwards to The Romans also built Utrecht’s first Venetian protectorates such as Nicosia fortifications (traiectum, ‘river crossing’, the (Lefkosia, ‘city of whiteness’), famous for its Dutch trecht) but the walls were breached star-shaped wall with eleven bastions. Now in grim civil wars (1483) and internal strife. there is another wall in Nicosia – a ‘green The Wall in Berlin (birl – Old West Slav for line’ (an insult to the trees!) – crossing the ‘the marshland’) was built by Cold Warriors only divided capital city in the world. The to divide the city. But now fragments of the beautiful walls of Jerusalem (Canaanite city wall are sold as tourist souvenirs, and the of Shalem, or of ‘peace’, Arabic Al-Quds, ‘the remaining lime trees of Unter den Linden Holy’) were built by the same Suleiman who march obliviously from the Brandenburg Gate failed to breach the walls of Vienna, but a
7 less lovely wall now winds its way through had to be the cities of Derry~Londonderry farmers’ fields, among the ashes of olive and London as part of our close collaboration trees. Inspirational artists such as the Israeli- that year; Utrecht, with which we helped Palestinian Duo Amal may not solve many to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its problems just now, but they sow the seeds of historic international peace Treaty, followed hope and human harmony. naturally; and five more great cities, with Walls may rise and fall, but you cannot their different walls and distinct histories defeat the trees or the musicians with them – of conflict, completed our map. The and the trees will have it in the end. composers belonging to these eight cities were selected with great care and invited © 2013 Nigel Osborne to choose their poetic partners or texts, Composer metaphorically speaking, by reaching across their respective walls (like mature tree branches). The results are wonderful and For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, varied. that it will sprout again, and that the tender The ninth composer, Nigel Osborne, was branch thereof will not cease. Though invited to compose music for string quartet to the root thereof wax old in the earth... yet link the songs – the cities and their cultures – through the scent of water it will bud, and into what may be the first truly circular song bring forth boughs like a plant. cycle. It has been designed so that one from The Book of Job can enter the new work through any one of many gateways, and travel round the songs from different starting points. We shall start A note from the festival director the songs in Derry and finish in Jerusalem, As we embarked upon our journey towards but others in future may decide to begin in the creation of this new song cycle for Nicosia, for example, and end the journey in voice and string quartet, the themes had Dubrovnik – it means going full circle in any already chosen themselves in reflecting all case. the main ideas of the 2013 City of London Festival: conflict and resolution – trees – © 2013 Ian Ritchie walled cities. The starting points, of course, Festival Director
8 The composers’ viewpoint London Wall, with its skyscrapers and roaring Once There Was an Island traffic. The name of this street gives a clue In Derry~Londonderry, the image of ancient to its past – ancient fragments of the City oak trees and city walls represents a political of London’s fortified walls lie preserved and social divide, and the current official nearby. Walking past, I would wonder what name, Derry~Londonderry, embodies this memories lay embedded in the wall’s layers divide. The original name for the area, dating of stone and moss. So it was a nice surprise back to the sixth century, is Doire, Irish for to be given London Wall as one of the starting ‘Oak grove’. During the British plantation of points for this piece, along with the mulberry Ulster in the seventeenth century, London tree and cities. erected walls round the city to keep the Irish I teamed up with the librettist Richard opposition of the occupation at bay. Thomas and we had several brainstorming The town was renamed Londonderry. sessions with the mezzo-soprano Loré Today the walls stand as an image of Lixenberg, discussing various possibilities repression for some or an image of ownership for style and text. I was thrilled with how and national pride for others. In this song, Richard developed these into such a moving the trees are used to represent the history political and evocative poem. I then set to of uprising in the area. In setting the words work on the musical ideas, incorporating of Matt Jennings to music I avoided a allusions to nursery rhymes and mediaeval national sound. The problems of imperialist history. Richard and I have both previously oppression, sectarianism, religious dogma, worked with Loré, and had similar ideas and nationalism that have had such a about wanting the piece to work as a negative impact on Ireland continue to affect drama gradually unfolding, allowing her to our whole world. harness her considerable talent for dramatic expression, contrast, and quirkiness, using © 2013 Christopher Norby her range of vocal timbres. As a viola player I enjoy writing for string quartet and am thrilled to have this piece Pyramus and Thisbe brought to life by such a fantastic team. While studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama I would often walk along © 2013 Jocelyn Pook
9 The Garden of Paracelsus suggested that I write a piece for the ‘The Garden of Paracelsus’ is based on a text Trees, Walls, Cities project, one of our by the German poet Peter Huchel. Huchel first ideas was to centre my contribution (1903 – 1981), a friend of the composer around a re-interpretation of Schubert’s Ernst Bloch, worked for the East German ‘Lindenbaum’ in one way or another. Both Radio after the end of WWII. In the first because of the song’s quintessential import half of his poem, we see the garden of the to Winterreise, an inspiration for the project, mediaeval alchemist Paracelsus, in which and because of the iconic meaning of lively discussions once took place. While the linden tree itself to the city I would composing this piece for Trees, Walls, Cities represent: Berlin and its famous boulevard I reflected on what ‘The Wall’ means to me as Unter den Linden, which was famously a Dutchman. cut in half by the Cold War Berlin Wall at I was born in 1959, and grew up thinking Brandenburger Tor. it was normal to have two Germanys. For The language of the original ‘Lindenbaum’ me, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall in poem, by Wilhelm Müller, is deeply rooted 1989 and the re-unification of Germany is in the style of his particular time and its the most important political event of my life. heavy romanticisms. As I like incorporating In 1977 I travelled by train with a group of elements of popular culture in my fellow students through East Germany and compositions (climbing over other walls, Poland, to work on the upkeep of Auschwitz. if you will), I had the idea to imagine the We worked together with left-wing German concept of his poem taken through a time students. I can still picture the East German machine and transformed into lyrics as soldiers standing with submachine guns they could typically be written by a singer- on the roof of the Berlin train station as we songwriter today. passed through the border. While I decided not to use the original melody by Schubert itself, feeling that this © 2013 Theo Verbey would have been too much of a creative limitation, I did choose to re-use elements of his accompaniment. Just outside When Paul Cassidy approached me and © 2013 Søren Nils Eichberg
10 Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park When God was creating Dubrovnik During World War II, several flak towers I have chosen verses from the poem ‘When were built to defend Vienna: indestructible God was creating Dubrovnik’ by the Dubrovnik towers of tremendous walls of concrete, poet Milan Milišić, because I longed to be in 3.5 metres thick. After World War II, one has the Dubrovnik of my childhood once again, unsuccessfully tried to blast them. Because to touch its rough, scorching stone; longed of this, they influence the urban image to hear the wonderful, loud, brisk, incessant, of Vienna in various quarters as a kind of bird-chatter-like calls of the women of memorial. They are partly empty today and Dubrovnik; longed to have before my eyes act as nesting place for thousands of birds one more time that shimmering, blurred line (two of them in the immediate vicinity of my in which the sky and the sea merge, disperse, flat: in the baroque Augarten park). Some and disappear: longed to hear the microtonal of them have been reconstructed: among flutter of olive trees, cypresses, and bushes. others, the flak tower in the Esterhazy I also wanted to infuse new life into verses Park, which accommodates the museum written by a poet whose life was tragically Haus des Meeres (House of the Sea). The taken away in Dubrovnik, on the first day of US-American concept artist Laurence Weiner the war, by combatants of that nation which wrote a distinctive anti-war saying in 1991 was his by origin. Poems live on and they help on the upper floor of Haus des Meeres: us to hold on, to survive, to be saved. ‘Smashed to pieces (in the still of the night)’. © 2013 Isidora Žebeljan This saying was translated into German by Ferdinand Schmatz, suitably on the opposite side of the flak tower: ‘Zerschmettert in Stücke (im Frieden der Nacht)’. I asked Walls Have Ears Ferdinand to attach a poem to these first ‘Walls Have Ears’ is a piece based on the two lines, which speaks in a quite abstract poem ‘Wartime’ by my friend the great Turkish manner about force and walls, and their Cypriot poet Mehmet Yaşin. It deals with the overcoming by the organic, lively, and issue of language in a time of conflict, and creative. how, for a Turkish Cypriot having grown up in a minority community in the sixties, the fact © 2013 Gerald Resch of his speaking his mother tongue becomes
11 a complex and sensitive issue. Like me, about love: according to our understanding of Mehmet was displaced, and lived in exile as Christianity, love is as powerful as death, and a result of the conflict of 1974, and because flowing waters cannot extinguish it. of this, and the ongoing political situation in © 2013 Habib Shehadeh Hanna Cyprus, as he writes in the poem, he ‘could never be the poet of any country, because I belonged to a minority’. The form of the song is based on a metaphor for the inner voice: The walled city was heavy and grey a language wall that is built between one’s Like a mountain in the distance thoughts and one’s means to express them. No life grew on this Island of walls There is a disparity developed through the That was not granted by decree piece between the text one hears in English, But after a while, a tree began to grow spoken by the quartet, and the incomplete At the foot of the outer wall Turkish phonemes that are quietly voiced by Its roots grew strong and its branches spread the singer, as if the one voice is being split wide into two worlds, an inner and an outer. Matt Jennings © 2013 Yannis Kyriakides from ‘Once There Was an Island’
The mezzo-soprano Loré Lixenberg has Song of Songs performed as soloist with distinguished I find much that is impressive in Solomon’s orchestras and ensembles including the Song of Songs but I had to choose just a few BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hallé, Tokyo sentences, to gather these together, and Philharmonic Orchestra, and Ensemble to make a small drama out of the text. It is Intercontemporain. Her rich experience in about a beloved woman entering the gates music theatre includes performing at the of Jerusalem to find her lover, and asking the Royal Opera House, Copenhagen as well as guards his whereabouts; after passing them participating in many projects with Théâtre and wandering through the streets she finds de Complicité. She has featured in numerous him. She asks the young women of Jerusalem television programmes, including the not to wake him up and continues talking documentary What Made Mozart Tick, shown
12 on Channel 4, and Kombat Opera Presents..., a of the international chamber music scene set of six comedy operas on BBC2. She sang but also a rich and varied musical existence. the roles of Peaches and Baby Jane in Richard Its members share a love and mastery of Thomas’s award-winning Jerry Springer – the traditional string quartet repertoire that The Opera at the Edinburgh International are evident from their highly acclaimed Festival, National Theatre, and in London’s West performances of works by composers right End, as well as on the subsequently released across the genre, as well as from their CD. In 2011, and again in 2014, she sang the extensive, award-winning discography. They role of Shelley in Mark-Anthony Turnage’s opera are also widely celebrated for their pioneering Anna Nicole at The Royal Opera, Covent Garden. work with a diverse range of performing Loré Lixenberg made the première recording artists, while their collaboration with many of John Cage’s Song Books and has worked distinguished composers has given them with composers and artists such as Georges an unrivalled opportunity to influence and Aperghis, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Karlheinz inspire some of the newest work for string Stockhausen, Bruce McLean, Stelarc, David quartet. Their passion to embrace ‘all good Toop, Bent Sørensen, and Helmut Oehring. music’ has been the driving force behind their success and has kept their approach Since its formation in 1972 the Brodsky fresh and their enthusiasm high over the Quartet has performed more than 3000 past forty years. The Brodsky Quartet’s concerts on the major concert stages of energy and craftsmanship have attracted the world and has released more than sixty numerous awards and accolades worldwide, recordings. A natural curiosity and insatiable while ongoing educational work provides desire to explore have propelled the group a vehicle for passing on experience and in many artistic directions and continue to staying in touch with the next generation. ensure it not only a place at the very forefront www.brodskyquartet.co.uk
13 Trees, Walls, Cities 2 Once There Was an Island (Derry~Londonderry) Once there was an Island An Island of trees Of sacred oaks Of hermits and druids with stars in their eyes Wild in the dappled dark Then the fist of empire brought axes and fire Ages of war swept away the trees
A graveyard of power a forest of ashes The wilderness gave way to the kingdom of men A mighty wall was built wide, tall and strong So high no eye could see over it So wide no sound could pass through it It rose to block the world outside A citadel against the hordes of nature
The walled city was heavy and grey Like a mountain in the distance No life grew on this Island of walls That was not granted by decree But after a while, a tree began to grow At the foot of the outer wall Its roots grew strong and its branches spread wide
Before long a scatter of trees grew wild All round the base of the city walls Their roots grew tangled and sturdy and fierce
14 Twisting like the sinews of Samson Weaving a net in the earth A web of secret life Beneath the sterile walls of the city
And then one day after centuries of silent growing Of underground root twining Of stone cracking and earth clutching Of swelling with the weight of rain and blood These trees brought down the wall
The wall fell like a giant It collapsed into rubble In a landslide of freedom The triumph of chaos Scattering rocks like seed and flowers
The walls sank back into the sand and soil New trees drew life from the crumbling ruin And the Island became a forest once again
Matt Jennings (b. 1968)
4 Pyramus and Thisbe (London) Times were hard, oh times were rough And the city mean and cold. But we were young and full of light And our souls were not yet sold.
15 We played with joy and innocence, We were green as Spring. And when the sun dropped out the sky Joyfully we’d sing.
Round and round the Mulberry bush Down by the London wall All you need is a little push And down, my friend, you’ll fall.
Built by the workers for the few Not for the likes of me and you. La la la la la London wall.
I met my boy, my one true love, And so my life began, We had to grow up oh so fast And soon he was a man.
He worked his trade as a builder And he was strong and fair And when he held me in his arms He answered every prayer. Oh he knew how and he knew where, Oh he answered every prayer.
Round and round the Mulberry bush Down by the London wall All you need is a little push And down, my friend, you’ll fall.
Built by the workers for the few Not for the likes of me and you
16 The rich remembered glorified The poor forgot, thrown aside Same old story, same old story, Not much hope and much less glory. La la la la la
My love is long since dead and gone, Not much to discuss. We had it all for one brief smile, Then that was it for us.
He was done in by bad luck, Some like to call it fate. Just another way of saying Poverty and hate.
Round and round the Mulberry bush Down by the London wall All you need is a little push And down, my friend, you’ll fall.
Built by the workers for the few, I’m old, I’m tired and I miss you! La la la la la la London wall.
Oh God, oh God, I sing thy praise But show some mercy as I end my days, Please end my days. La la la la la la hu hu hu
Push me, watch me fall. Push me, watch me fall, that’s all.
Richard Thomas (b. 1987)
17 6 The Garden of Paracelsus The Garden of Paracelsus (Utrecht) Meinem Sohn. Meinem Sohn. My son. My son.
Wenn mittags das weiße Feuer At midday, when the white fire Der Verse über den Urnen tanzt, Of verses dances over the urns, Gedenke mein Sohn. Gedenke derer, Remember my son. Remember him Die einst Gespräche wie Bäume gepflanzt. Who once planted conversations like trees,
Tot ist der Garten, mein Atem wird schwerer, The garden is dead, my breathing becomes Bewahre die Stunde, hier ging Theophrast, heavy, Mit Eichenlohe zu düngen den Boden, Preserve the hour that Theophrast walked Die Wunde Rinde zu binden mit Bast. here With acorn mulch as fertiliser, Healing the scars of the bark with bast.
Ein Ölbaum spaltet das mürbe Gemäuer An olive tree divides the crumbling ruins, Und ist noch Stimme im heißen Staub. The hot dust still has a voice. Sie gaben Befehl, die Wurzel zu roden. They gave the order to tear up the roots. Es sinkt dein Licht, schutzloses Laub. Unprotected leaves, your light is dying.
Peter Huchel (1903 – 1981)
8 Just outside (Berlin) I’ll probably never see again that Linden tree, Never those city gates. So long ago. So far the place. I left to find my peace.
‘Come here to me and you’ll be free Come here to find your peace!’ 18 Withering branches rustling call, You know, I can’t find peace.
Haunting me. Wooing me. Do you see me here, it’s me, Old friend, Linden tree! I’m just outside those gates! So far the place.
I come to find peace. I come to find peace. Just outside those city gates.
Søren Nils Eichberg (b. 1973)
10 Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park (Vienna) Zerschmettert in Stücke im Frieden der Smashed to pieces in the peace of the night Nacht The gap in the wall was destroyed by force Gebrochen was Macht ist der Wand Lücke Blooms pulled apart by hand schafft Fill the void, sprouting from cracks, their tiny Zerpflückt die Hand Blumen blue heads Zu füllen die Leere mit Blüten zu sprießen aus To hum with bees in nectar Ritzen am Stück The trees entwine and the branches within Zu summen mit Bienen im Saft us are burdened with luck Steigt der Baum an in uns verzweigt Baum Then the hand writes softly mit Glück Every space reverberates Schreibt so die Hand sacht In the shadows, light bowed, Allen Raum weitend kracht Peace shattered in the silence of the night Im Schatten das Helle geneigt Zerschmettert in Frieden die Stille der Nacht
Ferdinand Schmatz (b. 1953) 19 12 When God was creating Dubrovnik When God was creating Dubrovnik (Dubrovnik) Najprije je dugo šetao At first He took long walks Od Svetog Jakova do Kantafiga, From Saint Jacob’s Beach to Cape Kantafig Gledao strme litice, Looking at the steep cliffs Pučinu At the open sea I žuku po padinama. At the Spanish broom blooming on the slopes.
Onda je našao nekakvog dječarca, Then He found some lad Krhkog k’o košćela, Fragile as a honeyberry sapling I dao mu solad da donese And gave him a coin Vina i slanih srdela, To fetch some wine and salty pilchards Tako je počeo rad. So the work could begin.
Glatku bi ulicu čuknuo noktom, He’d tap a smooth street with His finger nail Oslušnuo je kako zvoni, Listening to it resound Prije no što je udjene između kuća Before inserting it between the houses Kao kupu konalicu Like a roof tile Između dvije letve. Between two beams.
S mirom kubizma, s kubicima mîra. With the peace of cubism, with pieces of Bit’ će to sve čitko s neba. cubic walls Istoku vrata istočna, It will be easy to see it all from the sky Zapadu zapadna, To the east the eastern gate Za svaku čupicu lastavicu, To the west the western gate Za svaku vatricu, And for every downy swallow Fùmar. For every little fire A chimney.
I huj plamena u maslinicima. And the sough of flames in olive groves.
20 I kule je dao načinit’ Then he had some towers made Da budu za gledat’, For people to watch Kao žene kad se Like women Namjeste na prekuće. Standing in their front-yards.
A kad bi Bog zastao, And when God rested for a moment Sve bi oko njega zastajalo Everything nearby would stop too I stâlo k’o podne u čaši ulja – And stand still as a noon in a cup of oil – Ni gudač, ni osica, No fiddler or wasp Ni žiška u luminu Or spark from a candle Ne dahu se čuti, Could be heard Samo zrikavci ludi zrikahu Only a cricket chirping wildly I svjetlice se palile i gasile And stars flashing on and off Po moru. At the sea.
Milan Milišić (1941 – 1991)
14 Walls Have Ears Walls Have Ears (Nicosia) İçimden konuşurdum işitilmesin diye I used to talk within myself so that no one gören de bilgelik sezerdi sessizliğimden! could hear me, Gizlenmesi gerekirdi çünkü tehlikeliydi and they all suspected wisdom in my silence! Türkçe Turkish was dangerous, must not be spoken, Elence desen kesinkes yasak. and Greek was absolutely forbidden... Tetikte beklerdi birer makineli-tüfek gibi My elders, who wanted to save me, were beni kurtarmak isteyen büyükler waiting, zaten o zamanlar gönüllü askerdi herkes. each one trigger-ready before a machine- Ve ders kitaplarının ince bıçak-açacağına gun. benzeyen Anyway, everyone was then a willing soldier. İngilizce, ortada dururdu öyle, English remained right in the middle, zorunlu durumlarda konuşulacak bir dil a slender paper-knife for cutting schoolbooks, olarak a tongue to be spoken at certain times özellikle de Elenler ile. especially with the Greeks! 21 Hangi dilde ağlayacağımı bile şaşırırdım çoğu I was often unsure in which language to kez shed tears, yabancı da değil, çeviri bir hayattı yaşadığım the life I lived wasn’t foreign, but one of anadilim başkaydı, anavatanım başka translation – ben derseniz bambaşka. my mother tongue one thing, my motherland Daha o karartma günlerinden görünmüştü another, hiçbir ülkenin şairi olamayacağım and I altogether different... çünkü azınlıktım ve ‘özgürlük’ Even in those days of blackouts it became hiçbir ulusal sözlüğe sığamayan bir sözcüktü... obvious En sonunda üç dil birbirine girdi şiirlerimde I could never be the poet of any country, ne Türkler duyabildi içimden geçenleri because I belonged to a minority. And ne Elenler, ne de Öbürleri – ‘Freedom’‘s still Ama kınamıyorum onları, savaş zamanıydı. a word uneasy in any nation’s lexicon... Then in my poems, the three languages got ‘Savaş Zamani’ into a wild tangle: Mehmet Yaşin (b. 1958) Neither the Turks nor the Greeks could hear my inner voice, nor the Others... But I don’t blame them, it was wartime.
‘Wartime’ Translation: Taner Baybars and Linda Stark
16 Song of Songs Song of Songs (Jerusalem) Arise my darling, my beautiful one, come with me
See! The winter is past; the rains are over and gone. Flowers appear on the earth; the season of singing has come, the cooing of doves is heard in our land. 22 Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom.
My beloved is mine and I am his; he browses among the lilies.
Until the day breaks and the shadows flee, turn, my beloved, and be like a gazelle or like a young stag on the rugged hills.
I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares.
Have you seen the one my heart loves?
I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him to my mother’s house.
Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.
23 Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot sweep it away. Solomon (tenth century BC) If one were to give all the wealth of one’s house for love, it would be utterly scorned.
Loré Lixenberg
24 Also available
Grundman A Mortuis Resurgere CHSA 5138
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Chandos 24-bit / 192 kHz recording The Chandos policy of being at the forefront of technology is now further advanced by the use of 24-bit / 192 kHz recording. In order to reproduce the original waveform as closely as possible we use 24-bit, as it has a dynamic range that is up to 48 dB greater and up to 256 times the resolution of standard 16-bit recordings. Recording at the 44.1 kHz sample rate, the highest frequencies generated will be around 22 kHz. That is 2 kHz higher than can be heard by the typical human with excellent hearing. However, this recording uses the 192 kHz sample rate, which will translate into the potentially highest frequency of 98 kHz. The theory is that, even though we do not hear it, audio energy exists, and it has an effect on the lower frequencies which we do hear, the higher sample rate thereby reproducing a better sound.
26 Concept and artistic direction Ian Ritchie
Executive producer Ralph Couzens Recording producer Isa Khan Sound engineer Adaq Khan Mixing engineer Adaq Khan Mastering engineer Adaq Khan Editor Isa Khan Final mastering Rosanna Fish A & R administrator Sue Shortridge Recording venue Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford; 31 January 2015 Front cover Artwork by designer Design and typesetting Cap & Anchor Design Co. (www.capandanchor.com) Booklet editor Finn S. Gundersen Publishers Copyright Control p 2016 Chandos Records Ltd c 2016 Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England Country of origin UK
27 TREES, WALLS, CITIES – Lixenberg / Brodsky Quartet CHAN 10883 cello violin
viola * violin CHAN 10883 Ian Belton CassidyPaul Loré Lixenberg mezzo-soprano Brodsky Quartet Rowland Daniel Jacqueline Thomas 5:51 2:19 1:04 4:13 1:03 3:13 6:40 0:26 0:27 0:24 0:43 3:22 0:58 4:33 3:00 6:38 3:03 TT 48:26 DIGITAL CHANDOS Cities , : ‘Song of Songs’ (Jerusalem)* : ‘Just outside’ (Berlin)* :‘Once There Was an Island’ :‘Once There Was : ‘Walls Have Ears’ (Nicosia)* Have : ‘Walls Essex • England : ‘When God was creating Dubrovnik’ creating : ‘When God was • (b. 1974) 2016 Chandos Records Ltd 2016 Chandos Records : Prelude. Jerusalem to Derry – : Prelude. Jerusalem to : ‘Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park’ (Vienna)* : ‘Flak Tower, Esterhazy Park’ : ‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ (London)* (b. 1973) : ‘The Garden of Paracelsus’ (Utrecht)* : ‘The Garden of Paracelsus’ (b. 1983) (b. 1969) (b. 1967) Colchester Walls (b. 1948) (b. 1975) • , (b. 1960) (b. 1959) Nigel Osborne Song Cycle for Mezzo-soprano and String Quartet Song Cycle for Mezzo-soprano Christopher Norby Derry to London – Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Pook Jocelyn Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Dubrovnik to Nicosia – Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Dubrovnik to Nicosia Kyriakides Yannis Gerald Resch Isidora Žebeljan – Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Nicosia to Jerusalem Habib Shehadeh Hanna Nigel Osborne: Postlude. Jerusalem to Derry Nigel Osborne: Interlude. London to Utrecht – Nigel Osborne: Interlude. London to Utrecht Theo Verbey Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Utrecht to Berlin – Søren Nils Eichberg Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Berlin to Vienna – – Nigel Osborne: Interlude. Vienna to Dubrovnik premiere recording 2016 Chandos Records Ltd c p 2016 Chandos Records Ltd Chandos Records 1 6 7 9 4 5 2 3 8 11 16 17 14 15 12 10 13 (Derry~Londonderry)* (Dubrovnik)*
Trees
TREES, WALLS, CITIES – Lixenberg / Brodsky Quartet CHAN 10883